STUDENTS WHO CHOOSE AND THE SCHOOLS THEY LEAVE: Examining Participation in Intradistrict Transfers

Data from one urban school district is analyzed to examine equity‐based arguments about school choice as they pertain to intradistrict transfer policies. We specifically examine which factors influence the propensity for parents to participate in choice, and how choice schools differ from the schools that students are zoned to attend. We find that advantaged and disadvantaged parents make similar choices in that they are both likely to choose more affluent schools with better academic records than the schools they are zoned to attend. However, these choices operate in different spheres, as advantaged parents choose the most affluent schools with the best academic records, and disadvantaged parents choose away from the least affluent schools with the worst academic records to schools that are slightly better.     

Collaborative evaluation of a high school prevention curriculum: How methods of collaborative evaluation enhanced a randomized control trial to inform program improvement

Blending high-quality and rigorous research with pure evaluation practice can often be best accomplished through thoughtful collaboration. The evaluation of a high school drug prevention program (All Stars Senior) is an example of how perceived competing purposes and methodologies can coexist to investigate formative and summative outcome variables that can be used for program improvement. Throughout this project there were many examples of client learning from evaluator and evaluator learning from client. This article presents convincing evidence that collaborative evaluation can improve the design, implementation, and findings of the randomized control trial. Throughout this paper, we discuss many examples of good science, good evaluation, and other practical benefits of practicing collaborative evaluation. Ultimately, the authors created the term pre-formative evaluation to describe the period prior to data collection and before program implementation, when collaborative evaluation can inform program improvement.     

The undercut procedure: an algorithm for the envy-free division of indivisible items

We propose a procedure for dividing a set of indivisible items between two players. We assume that each player’s preference over subsets of items is consistent with a strict ranking of the items, and that neither player has information about the other’s preferences. Our procedure ensures an envy-free division—each player receives a subset of items that it values more than the other player’s complementary subset—given that an envy-free division of “contested items,” which the players would choose at the same time, is possible. We show that the possibility of one player’s undercutting the other’s proposal, and implementing the reduced subset for himself or herself, makes the proposer “reasonable,” and generally leads to an envy-free division, even when the players rank items exactly the same. Although the undercut procedure is manipulable and its envy-free allocation may be Pareto-inferior, each player’s maximin strategy is to be truthful. Applications of the procedure are discussed briefly.     

Process evaluation of an environmental walking and healthy eating pilot in small rural worksites

Small Steps are Easier Together (SS) was a pilot environmental intervention in small rural worksites in Upstate New York in collaboration with Extension educators. Worksite leaders teamed with co-workers to select and implement environmental changes to increase walking steps over individual baseline and to choose healthy eating options over 10 weeks. Participants were 226 primarily white, women employees in 5 sites. A mixed methods process evaluation, conducted to identify determinants of intervention effectiveness and to explain differences in outcomes across worksites, included surveys, self-reports of walking and eating, interviews, focus groups, and an intervention log. The evaluation assessed reach, characteristics of recruited participants, dose delivered, dose received, and context and compared sites on walking and eating outcomes. Emergent elements of participant-reported dose received included: active leadership, visible environmental changes, critical mass of participants, public display of accomplishments, accountability to co-workers, and group decision making. Participants at sites with high reach and dose were significantly more likely than sites with low reach and dose to achieve intervention goals. Although this small pilot needs replication, these findings describe how these evaluation methods can be applied and analyzed in an environmental intervention and provide information on trends in the data.     

Using agency data for evidence-based programming: a university-agency collaboration

Agencies providing residential treatment are encouraged, or even mandated, to collect outcomes data and to implement evidence based practices, yet little guidance has been provided on how to do so using agency administrative data that are collected on an ongoing basis. We examined data on Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) scores for 1608 admissions to a residential treatment center from 2002 through 2008. CAFAS scores were measured every 90 days, providing multiple CAFAS scores for each individual. Results demonstrated that on average residents improved in functioning over time. Sensitive to the evolving needs of residents who had been entering the program, the treatment center made significant program changes in 2006 to attempt to better serve residents through a broad array of specialized programming. Compared to the overall results, the analysis suggested that residents who entered the program since October 2006 appeared to have made larger improvements in their CAFAS scores. Results were derived by employing multilevel models appropriate for estimating growth trajectories with repeated measures data. Conversations with agency staff suggested that using administrative data, and advanced statistical models, were extremely helpful for organizational decision making and evidence-based programming.     

Metropolitan Heterogeneity and Minority Neighborhood Attainment: Spatial Assimilation or Place Stratification?

Using geo-referenced data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, in conjunction with decennial census data, this research examines metropolitan-area variation in the ability of residentially mobile blacks, Hispanics, and whites to convert their income into two types of neighborhood outcomes-neighborhood racial composition and neighborhood socioeconomic status. For destination tract racial composition, we find strong and near-universal support for the "weak version" of place stratification theory; relative to whites, the effect of individual income on the percent of the destination tract population that is non-Hispanic white is stronger for blacks and Hispanics, but even the highest earning minority group members move to tracts that are "less white" than the tracts that the highest-earning whites move to. In contrast, for moves into neighborhoods characterized by higher levels of average family income, we find substantial heterogeneity across metropolitan areas in minorities' capacity to convert income into neighborhood quality. A slight majority of metropolitan areas evince support for the "strong version" of place stratification theory, in which blacks and Hispanics are less able than whites to convert income into neighborhood socioeconomic status. However, a nontrivial number of metropolitan areas also evince support for spatial assimilation theory, where the highest-earning minorities achieve neighborhood parity with the highest-earning whites. Several metropolitan-area characteristics, including residential segregation, racial and ethnic composition, immigrant population size, poverty rates, and municipal fragmentation, emerge as significant predictors of minority-white differences in neighborhood attainment.     

Attention Capture by Direct Gaze is Robust to Context and Task Demands

Eye-tracking was used to investigate whether gaze direction would influence the visual scanning of faces, when presented in the context of a full character, in different social settings, and with different task demands. Participants viewed individual computer agents against either a blank background or a bar scene setting, during both a free-viewing task and an attractiveness rating task for each character. Faces with a direct gaze were viewed longer than faces with an averted gaze regardless of body context, social settings, and task demands. Additionally, participants evaluated characters with a direct gaze as more attractive than characters with an averted gaze. These results, obtained with pictures of computer agents rather than real people, suggest that direct gaze is a powerful attention grabbing stimulus that is robust to background context or task demands.     

Review of outcome research on marital and family therapy in treatment for alcoholism

This review of controlled studies of marital and family therapy (MFT) in alcoholism treatment updates the earlier review by O'Farrell and Fals-Stewart (2003). We conclude that, when the alcoholic is unwilling to seek help, MFT is effective in helping the family cope better and motivating alcoholics to enter treatment. Specifically, both Al-Anon facilitation and referral and spouse coping skills training (based on new findings) help family members cope better, and CRAFT promotes treatment entry and was successfully transported to a community clinic in a new study. Once the alcoholic enters treatment, MFT, particularly behavioral couples therapy (BCT), is clearly more effective than individual treatment at increasing abstinence and improving relationship functioning. New BCT studies showed efficacy with women alcoholics and with gay and lesbian alcoholics, and BCT was successfully transported to a community clinic, a brief BCT version was tested, and BCT was adapted for family members other than spouses. Future studies should evaluate the following: MFT with couples where both members have a current alcohol problem and with minority patients, mechanisms of change, transportability of evidence-based MFT approaches to clinical practice settings, and replication of MFT outcomes of reduced partner violence and improved child functioning.     

Relationship education research: current status and future directions

The overarching aim of this article is to review the research on relationship education programs and approaches that has been published or accepted for publication since the last review article in 2003. This article provides a critical overview of the relationship education field and sets an agenda for research and practice for the next decade. A theme weaved throughout the article is the ways in which relationship education is similar and different from couples therapy, and we conclude that there can be a synergistic, healthy marriage between the two. We then provide recommendations for future directions for research in the relationship education field. Finally, the coauthors comment on our experiences in both the relationship education field and the couples therapy field as both researchers and interventionists.     

How does Conflict in Migrants’ Country of Origin Affect Remittance‐Sending? Financial Priorities and Transnational Obligations Among Somalis and Pakistanis in Norway

This article examines how conflict in the country of origin interacts with other factors in shaping migrants’ remittance‐sending practices. Our data come from a survey of 10 immigrant groups in Norway and semi‐structured interviews with Somali and Pakistani remittance‐senders and receivers. First, we conduct an in‐depth comparison to explore the differences in how Somali and Pakistani migrants decide about remittance‐sending. Second, we use survey data on all 10 migrant groups to evaluate whether the differences that are not explained by socioeconomic characteristics, may partly reflect whether or not there is ongoing conflict in the country of origin. In our analyses we differentiate between (1) the effect of migrants’capacity to remit and their prioritizing of local and transnational expenditures, and (2) the impact of state collapse and absence of human security on migrants’ and refugees’desire to remit. We find that ongoing conflict in the country of origin exerts an upward pressure on remittance‐sending.